[BWillie]

Originally Posted by listopencil

Ugh. Well the multiple time periods (they aren't timelines) is confirmed, which I didn't want to happen. But I'm rolling with it and the episode was fantastic. I'm now leaning towards: Arnold instigated the massacre by creating the original 'reverie' code in hosts with artificial bicameral minds. When they would start going nuts they'd go to the church and enter the confessional, transport down to therapy rooms, and be counseled by Arnold. He knew that there was a problem with this situation but kept it going because he came to believe that the hosts were sentient. Ford warned him against this and pointed out how dangerous it would be.

At some point this backfired on Arnold and Dolores killed him. My guess is that she snaps and starts killing people, that she is 'Wyatt.' Perhaps she went through the same arc that Maeve has gone through and started viewing humans as the enemy. I'm thinking that she found out the real nature of the park from Arnold and killed him, or that Arnold did something to provoke her into it, or that Ford did something to provoke her into it by setting up a storyline where Dolores would kill Arnold unless he rolled her back to a more controllable state. In that last scenario Arnold refuses and Ford considers it a suicide.

Most likely scenario IMO. Ford programmed/had Delores kill Arnold.